Bishop Gainer's unnecessary rush to judgment | PennLive Letters

To his credit, Harrisburg Roman Catholic Diocese Bishop Ronald Gainer last week released the names of 71 Catholic priests and other Church officials accused of child sex abuse--an essential act of transparency demonstrating that the diocese is holding itself accountable for a series of heinous acts spanning more than half a century.

Bishop Gainer also ordered that the names of his predecessors be stripped from church buildings, saying that "I strongly believe that leaders of the diocese must hold themselves to a higher standard and must yield honorary symbols in the interest of healing."

Among those whose names will be purged is Cardinal William H. Keeler, who served as Bishop of Harrisburg in the mid- to late-1980s before his installation as the 14th Archbishop of Baltimore.

Upon Cardinal Keeler's death last year, no less than The New York Times characterized him as having "championed sexual abuse victims." The newspaper cited his 2002 decision to publicly release the names of 57 priests within the Archdiocese of Baltimore credibly accused of child sex abuse, along with details of the $5.6 million in financial settlements and legal fees.

Cardinal Keeler was the first Catholic bishop to offer such a complete, public accounting--a leap of courage that predates Bishop Gainer's actions by more than a decade and a half.

Since the order to remove the bishops' names from diocesan buildings precedes the release of the confidential grand jury report detailing the child sexual abuse, Bishop Gainer's actions are pre-mature, if well-intentioned. Moreover, his sweeping actions have the potential to unfairly and irrevocably impugn the reputations of innocent people, including one who established a standard of accountability that Bishop Gainer now seeks to equal. A rush to judgement is no substitute for accountability.